1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to an air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, which can independently control temperature of air blown toward a front seat side and temperature of air blown toward a rear seat side in a passenger compartment.
2. Description of Related Art:
In a conventional vehicle air conditioning apparatus, a single common heating heat exchanger is disposed in an air conditioning case, and a front air mixing door and a rear air mixing door are independently disposed so that temperature of air blown toward a front seat side and temperature of air blown toward a rear seat side of a passenger compartment are independently controlled. Further, a partition wall for partitioning a downstream air passage of the heating heat exchanger into a front air passage and a rear air passage is disposed on an air outlet side of the heating heat exchanger.
However, because the partition wall for partitioning the front air passage and the rear air passage is a fixed wall, the downstream air passage through which air having passed through the heating heat exchanger flows is always partitioned into the front air passage and the rear air passage. As a result, when a windshield of the vehicle is necessary to be quickly defrosted with maximum heating capacity during a defroster mode, air flowing through the rear air passage of the heating heat exchanger is not used for defrosting the windshield. Further, even when no passenger is on a rear seat of the passenger compartment, or even when air blown toward the rear seat is not necessary, the front air passage and the rear air passage are always partitioned from each other by the partition wall. Therefore, heating capacity for the front seat of the passenger compartment cannot be sufficiently effectively improved.